REACTION - Greedfall 2 launching as an Early Access title is a smart way to avoid sequel bloat
Scaling the balloon.
By Jonathan Garrett
04/03/24
There is a necessary restraint needed when sequels build upon surprising success. The original Greedfall cracking a million sales, given that it occupied that middle ground AA space in terms of budget and advertising reach, was a fantastic win for a relatively small team. When compared to the rapidly ballooning AAA budgets (and the unrealistic sales expectations some publishers expect those games to reach), it makes a great deal of sense for the sequel to take a measured approach.
Greedfall 2: The Dying World being planned for Early Access, so developer Spiders can take their time to let it cook, is a shrewd business move that will likely pay long term dividends. The “swimming in 7’s vibe” of the original (no bad thing!) can be retained, with a tighter overall polish that ensures it’ll continue to reach the audience it deserves.
I realise this more restrained strategy isn’t possible for every game, and for a lot of publishers, there are financial obligations that go beyond just the quality of a finished product. But what we’re seeing here is a developer who has more than earned their stripes being given the chance to properly realise their creative vision. That is only a good thing.
TARPS?
At the bottom of some of our articles, you’ll see a series of absurd looking images (with equally stupid, in joke laden names). These are the TARP badges, which represent our ‘Totally Accurate Rating Platform’. They allow us to identify specific things, recognise positive or negative aspects of a games design, and generally indulge our consistent silliness with some visual tomfoolery.
